“I believe he was reluctant to speak to the authorities. He was guarded in what he said,” Lecomte said Tuesday.

Many neighbors were not surprised by the discovery.

“It’s a shock that it actually did happen, but I think deep down we all knew that something like this would eventually happen,” one neighbor said. “I’ve lived here for 27 years so everybody kind of felt the same way.”

Some described James Nichols as a man of mystery and few words.

“He was always strange, he kept to himself, he really didn’t say much to anybody,” one neighbor said.

In 1985, following the death of Nichols’ son, there were reports of a suicide note, WCBS 880’s Paul Murnane reported.